36 ARPEGE -::.. "* .. =-*'" .,.. :..,:, de Ll\NVIN j AR?EGE <t:' ø. $:" \ t<1 .% V w b..:: '... Ny ".:'. """'" .....?>'\.- . TOILET WATER MY SIN by LAN'TIN Arpege: 4 OZ., $6; 8 OZ., $10* My Sin: 2 OZ., $3; 4 OZ., $5; 8 OZ., $8.50* *plus tax Huston saw it. I accolnpanied Rein- hard t to a projection room in th e base- ment of the Irving Thalberg Building, at the M-G-lVl studio, where we were joined hy Lewis and Miss Booth. The cut began with the men drilling on the field at Chico. Miss Booth immediately asked why there was only one shot of the men marching. "H uston said just one shot and a closeu p as brief as we can make it," Lewis said. "Malarkey," said Miss Booth "The lTIdrching is supposed to be funny, but it isn't funny now. You don't know what kind of marching this is." "Then let's build it up," said Lewis. "We'll put more of it in " "More of It back and forth; then it will be funny," Miss Booth said im- patiently. "I could put in a piece where the fat fellow walks by," said Lewis. Reinhardt spoke for the first time. "Put it in," he said. At the conclusion of the showing, Miss Booth criticized the scene that showed a group of veteran soldiers laughing at raw recruits; she said she didn't know what it meant. Reinhardt cleared his throat and explaIned that it wasn't plain hecause th(: long shot was a dolly shot; the closeups were not. "J ohn shot it wrong. He forgot to dolly," he said. "Reshoot it," said Miss Booth, and continued, "That shot of the men dIg- ging-that's very dull to me. Cut It righ t down to the bone, 13enny." "The old man with the lines in his face, turn- ing around and looking over his shoulder?" said Lewis. "What's he supposed to be looking at?" Miss Booth asked " John likes that," said j I Reinhardt t/ "What's he looking at?" Miss Booth asked Jj *' ;fi; /I \ ' '10 \ agaIn. " ..t\..t the producer," said Lewis. "He's a stockholder," said Reinhardt. "I have news for " O d L 0 " H ' 1 k o you, sal eWIS. e s 00 Il1g at Mr. :Mayer. Well, his looking days are over." "1 don't get it, Gottfried," said Miss Booth. "All this individual digging." "John likes these faces," said Rein- hard t. Yliss Booth snorted. "Cut it!" she . d d . " I ' sal , stan Ing up. ve got to go. Don't put anything back, Benny." When she had left, Reinhardt said to Lewis, "For the time being, you can keep the shot of the old man turning around toward the camera. John is especially fond of that." He stood up and, smiling sadly, he said to me, "Let's go up to my office." As we went up- stairs, he said, "This is how we make pictures. This will be recut thirty times. The digging scene will eventually come out. But we must go at it slowly. We cannot shock John by doing it all at once." Seated behind his desk, Reinhardt leaned back in his chair. "Actually, every director should make the rough cut-the film as assembled from start to finish for the first time-himself," he said, and bit the end off a cigar. "But it's almost a physical impossibility. Once the director is through, you can usually do what you want \vith a picture." He sighed and lit the cigar. "When John sees the first cut, he mdY holler like hell," he said. "He may ask Benny Lewis to put it all back. But then he'll come around to the \VdY Margaret Booth wants it. There's so much about pictures that has nothing to do with art." He sighed again, and went on, "Tome, there are three terri- hIe moments in making a picture. FIrst, the rough cut. Second, the first pre- view. ThIrd, knuwing the picture has opened in New York. For John, the rough cut will be the most painful. I will say to him, 'This is the best picture you have ever made.' He will say to me, 'This is the best picture you have ever made.' John is like a race horse. You must keep him in a good mood all the time." He chewed on his cigar for a while. Then he said, "I wish I had made John reshoot the dead man in the road. It doesn't make the point at all I felt it when I <;aw the first rushes. No matter how enth usiastic we are about the script, the cast, and the director, the impact of the first 1 ushes usually tells you whether the pic- ture wIll be good or not. Once the first impact is gone, it is easy and cus- tomary to delude yourself. Subse- quent rushes will seem good. Perform- ances will seem extraordinary Scenes will be effective. The tension, the pres- sure, the sense of self-preservation, the / / u